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Yesterday was really fun! I had such good luck and things seemed to just keep working out!

I had a relaxed morning (although we got woken up by noisy birds, grrrr) and then I went to the Pacific Centre to try and find a decent bathing suit. No more online shopping for me. I couldn’t find anything at first but then at the last minute I did. Good ol’ H&M. I love you H&M.

Then I headed through extreme hockey craziness downtown to meet up for an ultra Canadian girls night. Granville Street was already packed at 4:00PM. We met up at La Belle Patate for delicious poutine, and since it wasn’t too crowded and they had a TV and cheap drinks we stayed and watched the hockey game there.

Burrows scored the first goal. I always say that Burrows is going to score the first goal. Then Boston scored twice and I started to worry that things were going to go very bad for the Canucks. Then a Sedin tied the game and the game went into OVERTIME! Overtime is SO stressful, but this was THE BEST OVERTIME EVER cuz it only lasted 11 seconds before BURROWS scored and won the game!! OMG we were so excited! Everyone was screaming and high fiving, it was awesome. I believe it was all due to the new Burrows t-shirt that Scott bought me on Friday. Lucky t-shirt! I am not going to wash it.

After the game we chilled at Tanie’s house for a bit and then I headed over to meet Scott at Brian’s house. The boys were very silly and I won my first ever game of Wits and Wagers. Brian got a new deck of questions and instead of them all being about 1900-1930 American history they are about things like swimming pools and Rubik’s cubes and I was getting question after question right.

People were still honking and screaming FOUR HOURS AFTER THE GAME WAS OVER! It is intense in Vancouver these days. So much fun.

Oh and I also got 8 out of 8 footy tips right this weekend. I should have bet on my sports predictions this week, jeeze!!

Anyway wow it’s nearly lunchtime already and I still haven’t got up. Time to study some physics. Oh I’m planning on calling BCIT tomorrow to see what’s going on since Friday is my deadline for Michener. AHHH! Cross your fingers for me please!!

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Last Friday Scott and I had plans to go do our first yoga class in the early evening. We had bought vouchers for 20 classes for $20, but unfortunately I guess it was actually a scam because the company went out of business. I sent Dealfind an angry email and they are refunding us, which is good, but… I still want to try yoga!!

Anyway we had planned to finally try La Taqueria as a reward after the class… but even though there was no yoga we still had tacos. Guilty.

The tacos were really good, but small. Scott had one of each of the veggie options (mushrooms, tofu, beans, corn). He liked the Tinga de Hongos – sauteed fresh mushrooms in spicy chipotle sauce the most. I had fish, pork cheeks, pork and mole, and liked the Carnitas – pork confit with pickled red onion the most. I did not like the mole but am glad I tried it. We ate them in the park since it was still light and nice out.

We also finally checked out Canada Place.

Here’s Scott with the Olympic torch, hehe.

And here’s me blending into a geometric orca.

The weather has been nice in Vancouver lately. Very sunny and warm! (About 18ºC). Unfortunately it’s not supposed to be nice over this long weekend. We debated for a bit about renting a car and going to Seattle or Bellingham or Harrison Hot Springs or something, but ended up deciding nah because it was too last minute. We definitely plan on taking a weekend trip very soon, but it will probably be better to search out a good hotel deal and do some research beforehand since we’d be on a tight budget.

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Last weekend was nice. We went out for dinner with Scott’s aunt on Friday (I had fish and chips), and then Scott and I went over to Brian’s for games. On Saturday I bummed around the house while Scott went out and watched the Canucks game at a bar with some friends (it was hailing, I wasn’t going out!). Then on Sunday we went to Metrotown and did a mega shop.

Interspersed in all that were some tasty treats!

While Scott was at the bar I made myself homemade chicken nuggets and some yam fries. Unfortunately my yam fries turned out totally mushy and kind of gross. So…. I saved them and the next morning I toasted a bagel, smeared some Laughing Cow on it and the mushy yam on top of that! Rosemarie thought it would be gross, but it was yummy!

Crescent Rolls were on special the other week so we did Round II of experimenting with stuffing them. Spinach + mozzarella, and green onion + feta were both OK, but Clodhoppers were terrible (they turned rock hard!!).

The best ones by far were: green onion + sliver of Laughing Cow + bit of chilli garlic sauce. SO GOOD!

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So I set out to make chocolate tarts like this:

Using this recipe. It’s French. They are basically tarts with a crust made out of chocolate and crushed potato chips, with a choc mousse on top. The recipe is for four giant tarts, but I made them in muffin liners and ended up with 17 mini tarts.

I followed the recipe very carefully, measuring with a scale and everything, but something went wrong. Instead of a smooth delicious chocolate layer on top I ended up with a beige liquid with brown flecks. After leaving them in the fridge for three hours it became clear that they were never going to set so Scott suggested we put them all in the freezer.

I was quite upset at this point that I had wasted so many ingredients on something that was not working out AT ALL.

But, they ended up freezing into somewhat delicious ice cream pucks with chunky chocolate potato chip bits!!

Not bad at all, if I erase the original idea from my head. A tasty ice cream treat in a manageable serving size (they are about 6 cm in diameter and 2 cm tall). Yum!

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Woke up this morning to an offer of admission to Michener, for xray. Hooray, kinda. Michener is Plan C at this point. Nice to have something though, as long as they don’t force me to decide yes or no too soon.

As promised I have some food to talk about.

“Mexican Lasagna”

We had a bunch of tortillas that we needed to use up so I invited some kind of mexican lasagna. Mexican food amuses me, because it’s pretty much always the same ingredients, but in different combinations and formats.

For this one I stir fried some red onions and garlic, dumped in a can of rinsed black beans, and a tin of diced tomatoes (not ideal, but I was feeling too lazy to use fresh tomatoes), some frozen corn, and cumin and chili powder.

When that was cooked a bit I layered it with some tortillas and cheese in a baking dish. From bottom to top: mixture, tortilla, mixture, tortilla, cheese, tortilla, mixture, tortilla, cheese. Then I baked it at 350ºF for about 25 minutes, then topped it with some green onion and avocado. Delicious!

Homemade Strawberry Daiquiris

Our local grocery store has big boxes of Californian strawberries on sale a lot. Last time I bought one I ate all the ones that looked decent (three years working for Shouldice has turned me into a total strawberry snob) and then cut the top off the rest and froze them.

To make the daiquiris I tipped a bunch of frozen berries, a couple tbsp of sugar, a couple shots of rum, and a little bit of lemonade at a time into the blender. I always end up making too much though because you have to use a fair amount of liquid to get the blender circulating. :/ Anyway they were delicious and I like the all natural bright red colour!

Black Bean Burgers

Ugh WORST PICTURE EVER! This was the leftover patty. We devoured our burgers too fast to get a good picture!! Anyway these are really really delicious and I highly recommend giving them a try if you want to have something other than a beef burger.

  • 1 can rinsed black beans
  • 1/2 large green pepper, diced really small
  • 1/2 onion, diced really small
  • 2 cloves garlic, diced really small
  • cilantro, optional if you’re one of those who hates the stuff!
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 huge squirt sriracha
  • 2 pieces toast, chopped up

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Mash the beans in a bowl until they are pretty demolished. Add everything else, and mix. Form into patties, then bake ~20 minutes. Be careful when you pick them up, they sometimes crack.

Use in a hamburger bun with mayo, spinach, tomato, cheese, and/or whatever else you like on a burger!

Vegetarian Sushi

So I had my first go at making sushi with no supervision. It only had avocado, cucumber, sweet potato and marinated tofu because there was a bit of a seafood shortage that day. Well they tasted good but I don’t understand why all my fillings ended up on one edge and all the rice on the other! I need a sushi lesson.